2042: The Great Cataclysm (24 page)

It’s easy to do exercises and drills, but the real thing is frightening, and it couldn’t happen at a worse time, we’ve got a high number of critical patients here at the moment. We’ve got some work ahead of us. The army’s taken over the churches and public halls in the Hinterland, and they’ve allocated some to us. They’ve also given us a team of men and trucks.’

‘Some patients could die during the move?’ Karen said.

‘Yes, I know.  It’s going to be almost impossible to avoid the risk of infection. Some of these patients are on around-the-clock care. It’s going to be a nightmare. Army personnel will be working alongside the nurses, and none of them are trained medical people.’

‘Matron will have everything organised, but what can I do to help you?’

Alex sighed. ‘Just look after yourself. The patients aren’t going to like this either, there’s going be some difficult situations to handle. Matron’s going to have her hands full.’

‘I know. I’ve been thinking of nothing else. I’m scared Alex, I don’t know if I can get through this.’

Alex placed his hands on her shoulders. ‘Yes, you can. You’re one tough lady.  I know what you’ve been through in the past and this’ll be no different.’

‘But they were just my problems, this involves everybody. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like. How can we survive in those mountains without everything we’re used to having? Like electricity, transport, communications?  My God, how are we going to feed ourselves when the supplies run out?’

Alex sensed her rising hysteria and hugged her to him. ‘You don’t need to worry about it.’ He soothed ‘That’s going to be the army’s job.’

‘I don’t envy them that.’ She said pulling away from his embrace.

Alex looked down at the floor. ‘We have to survive first. Man’s very ingenious, we’ll find ways.  We have to focus on the immediate danger. One step at a time. C’mon, there’s so much to do.’

Once outside Alex’s office they found a frantic scene confronting them. Army personnel and staff carrying boxes and crates were scurrying everywhere.  They’d already started packing equipment.  A portly, agitated male patient stood by the nurse’s station shouting abuse at one of the nurses.

‘You’ve got a nerve! It’s cost me a fortune to come here, and I expect to be looked after, not pushed ‘round like this.  You’re going to hear from my lawyer!  You’re not taking me out of here in some army truck.  It’s ridiculous!  I want to see the person in charge!’

The nurse was trying vainly to pacify him. ‘I’m sorry sir she’s very busy.  If you go back to your room I’ll call her when she’s free.’

‘You’d better make sure you do.’ He yelled, as a wards man escorted him away.  ‘You’ll have reason to worry about your job too!’

‘Good work nurse.’ Karen said as she approached the station.

‘Sister Torrens, the patients are all complaining, what are we going to do?  All these army people are frightening everyone.’

‘Just do your job nurse, that’s all we ask. The patients will accept it when they realise it’s for their safety. It’s up to you to persuade them that it is.’

‘I’ll try my best.’

Karen walked away, not wanting to answer the nurses natural questions.

The day wore on with Karen fielding complaints and questions from every direction. She had been on duty without a break for over nine hours, and she was bone tired. Many patients welcomed the excitement as something to take their minds off their pain, but just as many were as outraged as the man at the nurses station, and demanded answers she could not give. She dared not think what would happen when they were evacuated to the mountains.

Brian telephoned, and his conversation did nothing to improve her mood. ‘Bill’s furious, I thought you said he was okay last night.’

‘I told you it’s no use talking to him while he’s drinking.’ Karen said. ‘Give him time. He’ll look at it differently tomorrow.’

‘Yeah, but when’s h
e
no
t
drinking. I pity Veronica.’ Brian commented.  ‘He’ll be as angry as a brown bear pulled out of hibernation.’

‘That won’t be anything new.’ Karen added. ‘He’s always angry with her.’

‘I was just in Southport and the Trancabs are being bombarded with holidaymakers wanting to get home. The airports have cancelled all international flights, and can’t cope with the rush of people demanding to get on planes. It’s only a few steps away from mass panic.’

‘Won’t it be better if they all go home?’ Karen said.

‘Maybe so......  It looks like I won’t be home for a while. Will you be okay on your own?’

‘Yes, just keep in touch, okay?’  Karen hung up feeling slightly relieved. She liked being on her own sometimes, and after a day like today, she welcomed the thought of going home to be alone.  She really should call Uncle Bill. Maybe he would come up to the house if he thought she was alone, and she could talk some sense into him. She decided against it, there was still so much to be done at the hospital. There would be plenty of time to be alone later.

‘Sister Torrens.’ A nurse cried. ‘I’m so confused! It’s not like our drills. Patients are being brought in by ambulance, and before they can be treated, they’re shipped out on army trucks or Vetos. The emergency room’s chaos. Our routines and treatment schedules are all upside down. The doctors are starting to reschedule most of the operations.’

Alex had been correct, exercises weren’t like the real thing. Nobody panicked, but now she sensed fear creeping into the nurse’s voice.

‘There’s nothing we can do about it.’ She replied wearily wiping her forehead. She could feel the perspiration clinging uncomfortably to her overworked body, and realised then that all the nurses would need reassuring. Normally they were well organised and disciplined, a hospital is that kind of environment. All of a sudden the well-ordered routine was thrown aside.

Chapter Thirty-one

The Earthquakes Friday Morning, June 9

The Platypus had been delayed in Hawaii for two days finding a replacement crew, and was now three hundred kilometres south of the Johnston coral atoll. The seas were running at a three to four metre swell.

The Pacific Tsunami Centre bellowed out the tsunami warning over the radio. ‘Tsunami bulletin number one from the Pacific Tsunami Warning centre. Earthquakes have occurred with the following parameters: Origin time: Eleven thirty hours June 8, 2042. The coordinates: the length of the Pacific Ocean fault line at a depth of thirty-five kilometres. Location: from the Bering Strait to New Zealand. Magnitude...’ The announcer paused, his voiced raised in pitch. ‘Magnitude eleven point two, ten point one, nine point nine!’

‘Eleven point two?’ Sam repeated. ‘Sweet Jesus, we’re in for it. Beau come to the wheelhouse!’

Sam wanted to call Nick, but there was no time. His main fear was losing the Bunyip over the side because he doubted the Navilon hood could take a slam from something that large if she came loose. He had no idea if the platypus could ride it out, or if he could keep her pointing into the swells. He punched the automatic pilot to select the Critical Storm level, went to enter the heading and bearing, and it registered that he didn’t know; it would be coming from all directions. The boat would slow to bare steerage way, and hold at an angle of forty-five degrees to the swells. The windows on the bridge were extra toughened Navilon, so Sam felt confident they could take the onslaught. He was not so confident about the hull, even though she had been strengthened to cut through ice.

Beau arrived from below and picked up the binoculars. ‘Sam! The horizon. Look!’ He handed the binoculars to Sam.

The sea undulated like a snake in the distance. ‘Oh, man.’ Sam breathed. ‘That’s one angry sea. Must be a one hundred foot swell at least, and it’s comin’ our way. We’re gonna to feel like we’re on the biggest roller coast on earth, make sure everyone’s in the capsules below. No-one on the deck! Shut the shield.’

The chief engineer stood beside Sam and Beau, training his binoculars on the fearsome scene ahead. His face, like the Beau’s, was white as sun bleached bone. The black wave drew closer and Sam shouted. ‘Into the capsules now!’

They buckled themselves in. ‘All crew, if you’t not in the capsules now you’ll be dead!’ Sam bellowed into the communications system. ‘It’s going to be the mother of all rogue waves’

The shock of the first wave hit them with a thundering crash that jarred their teeth. The gimbals rocked but the capsules remained level. It sounded like a freight train running over them and Sam looked to the side window and could see nothing but black water. He watched as daylight turned dark and his stomach flipped in unison with the ship as she climbed the peak, then dived into the trough, all the time resisting the waves attempts to sink her.

More waves followed, and many times she hung vertically while climbing the peaks, and Sam thought she would break in two when she crashed back into the troughs. Never in all his days at sea had he experienced anything so frightening. Platypus spun and dived like she was riding a bucking bronco, and Sam expected them all to go to the bottom of the sea at any minute. The onslaught continued for an hour, and the seasoned crew members down below were violently ill, even Sam battled to keep down his breakfast.

When the pounding eased to a swell of six metres, and remained that way for fifteen minutes Sam gave the order to resume stations and ordered damage reports. His knees wobbled as he carefully clambered out of his capsule and steadied himself by the helm. He checked their course and reset the automatic pilot while the chief engineer headed off to inspect the engines. Satisfied that all was well, he left the wheelhouse in the hands of the first mate and went with Beau to check on the Bunyip.

Beau heaved a sigh when he saw the submersible still strapped into the ties they had harnessed around her, albeit at a tilted angle. Two crew members were tightening the straps holding her in her cradle. He realised then how close they had come to capsizing and losing the entire ship. Beau pursed his lips and shook his head as he walked around the Bunyip, patting her belly. ‘Get Nick’s baby settled back in her crib boys. It ain’t over yet.’

A sudden wind thundered over the ship, bringing with it patches of foam in dense white streaks over the Navilon hood, filling their ears with a thundering roar. The sea was completely white with driving spray and foam.

Sam waved at the men. ‘Hurry boys back to your capsules.’ He yelled above the deafening roar pounding against the hood. He staggered back to the wheel house with Beau following behind, reeling and swaying on the heaving deck. Visibility was zero outside, and just as they were about to enter the wheelhouse, the ship bucked abruptly knocking Sam to his feet, and the Platypus began wallowing in the chaotic sea again. He struggled to his feet rubbing his head and grabbing at anything to hold him steady.

‘Sweet Jesus. What’s happenin’ now George?’ He bellowed to his first mate.

‘Dunno Captin.’ The Anomometer is reading sixty, or force eleven and climbing. It’s way above hurricane force.’

‘Keep a sharp lookout.’

‘Captain check the compass. Where the hell are we?’

‘We’re on course, why?’ Sam answered.

George handed the binoculars to Sam and pointed. ‘Then what’s that out there?’

Sam squinted through the binoculars. He couldn’t understand what he was seeing. It appeared to be a distant land mass where there should have been open ocean, and it was huge, there didn’t appear to be an end to it. Clouds of smoke and steam and dust bellowed from it’s entire surface that glowed with red hot lava. The boiling sea near it was stained an eerie yellowish green.

‘Volcano?’ Sam hissed. ‘There’s no volcanos here. It’s the middle of the Pacific Ocean!’

Wolf barrelled into the wheelhouse. ‘I just saw it on the satellite feed, my Got!’ He puffed.

‘Is it a volcano Wolf?’ Sam asked.

‘It’s more than that, it’s a new island and it’s huge, satellite shows it to be a hundred miles across and twice as long, and about fifteen hundred feet high.’

‘What? Are you jivin’ me?’ How the hell?’

Wolf pulled at his beard. ‘The earthquake here’s caused a giant undersea volcano to erupt and rise to the surface, and there’s a chain of undersea quakes erupting all along the new fault line as we speak, just as we predicted. The Aleutians have disappeared, along with a big chunk of Alaska and Russia, I hardly recognised the area. The North Pole’s disintegrating!’

‘Sweet Jesus. What do we do?’

Beau was peering through binoculars at the frightening scene. ‘Keep on course for Australia.’ He said. ‘Nick will be eager to know how we are.’

‘I’ve tried to contact him.’ Wolf muttered. ‘He’ll be in the thick of it in a few hours, so I don’t expect to get through to him.’

‘I’ll have to set a new course ‘round that thing.’ It’s goin’ to take us much longer to reach Brisbin, and if this gale keeps up, longer still.’

The sea threw great waves and foam over the Platypus as she made slow headway on her course, peaking and diving into the black abyss of the troughs, struggling up the next peak, fighting the raging wind and currents, until all onboard thought their bodies would break, and headed to the capsules for some respite.

Chapter Thirty-two

Gold Coast Friday, June 9

It was the fourth day after Nick had arrived on the Gold Coast and operation Star Flight was in full swing. The sky was a constant buzz with the whirring, screaming sound of many Vetos, and some of the Trancar lines had been disconnected to make way for loaded army jeeps and trucks pushing through the streets. The smart phone in Nick’s apartment buzzed. ‘Yeah!’ He snapped, annoyed at the intrusion, noting the time at eight o’clock.